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gjnhjfdhns: Part FORTY: Skid Marks on the Tile

There are moments in my life that I will never forget; times when I saw entirely simple things that I found beautiful, and times when I felt an emotion so strong, it couldn't be erased. There was the time when I saw him walking (/it was just walking, and I wasn't anywhere nearby, but/), the time I heard her sing (/she was really passionate about music, more than I'd ever known/), and now, the pure terror of seeing that man again. I can't explain why I was so horrified, but as soon as I saw him, I felt the faint tug of a memory of intense pain, something I was sure didn't belong to me.

Then again... I wasn't really sure of anything in life, and this situation helped nothing.

"Guys... Guys, guys gu~uys..." I gulped, never bringing my eyes away from our newest guest. "We need to get out of here. Like, right /now/." I couldn't see any of their faces, but I could feel the immediate change from quietly confused to screamingly afraid. In fact, I could hear screams. Not just the ones in a distant part of the mall, but the ones in the foreign memory, the ones I'd never heard before but were so familiar to me.

If I had money to bet, I would've said that the others were feeling the same way.

"What's the matter?" Smirked the man who seemed like the personification of pain. "You all look like you've seen a ghost..." He blinked, mockingly acting surprised to add, "you aren't afraid of /me/, are you?" He stepped forward, off the table, but not onto the ground. Slowly, he sauntered toward us, walking on nothing as though he was walking on solid ground. His nails morphed into those grotesque claws I had felt before, their points grazing the tile below him with a sickly metallic sound. Menacingly, he grinned. "Whatever for?"

"Holy /f-ck/!" Andrew whispered, sounding incredulous.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go~o!" I whimpered, taking baby steps backward. I made a motion to take a bigger step, and when my foot touched the ground, we were suddenly on the first floor, staring up at where the man stood: at the head of the escalator, looking more and more frightening with each second of his gradual descent.

There wasn't time to ask my question, but I said it anyway- "How did we-?"- and was interrupted by Mitchell.

"Who gives a damn, let's just /go/!"

"Are we going to split up because there's a lot of us?" I asked, feeling the teeniest bit annoyed.

"Good idea." He and Andrew ran off without a moment of hesitation. I groaned, before turning to Brian... Who had already dashed away with Jerome. "Jesus /Christ/-"

Marina and I bolted into /Sears/, running to the first corner before weaving through the isles and isles of merchandise.

"Should we hide in one of the clothes racks?" I panted, noting that most of the racks were packed with clothes long enough to touch the ground.

Footsteps

"Oh, sh-t- I think we /should/!" Marina replied, and she dived into a rack on my left, while I dove into a circular rack that had old winter coats hanging on it. I clamped my hands over my mouth, trying to stifle my breath, and closed my eyes. Concentrated on the echoing crescendo of footsteps that belonged to oh-so-frightening feet.

"... He's here..."

I stopp/e/d breathing.

The coats in front of me parted with such startling force that I jumped as they flew off the rack. There stood the man, his one claw lying on the floor at his feet, his eyes full of mirth and danger. After a tense, silent moment, I did the first thing I could thing of: I elbowed him, /hard/, where it hurts guys the most, and bolted past him.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God... I'm in deep fhugging sh-t...!

I could hear him following me, and I flew over the polished tiles of good ol' /Sears/, running faster than I ever had in my entire life. It was amazing, how unreal this was; I had had dreams before, when I was being chased, and I ran in what I perceived to be fear, but today, at this second, I understood true horror- I knew what it felt like to run for my life. The burst of adrenaline seemed neverending.

I grabbed onto the corner of a counter and swung around it, dashing off in a new direction, but the footsteps behind me were louder and didn't miss a beat.

I stumbled.

F-CK.

If I had known that a simple misplace of the foot would cost me my life, I would've joined some army somewhere just for the training. I would've crashed dance classes with every waking moment. I would've tied my shoes.

A human hand grabbed my shoulder, spun me around, and pushed me against a pillar by my neck. I could have sworn that I heard the mirror crack as I hit it- Or maybe it was me that cracked. Terrified, I tried thrashing my way out of his grip, but that only made my windpipe smaller. I scratched at his hand, trying to pry it off with what nail I had.

He had this psychotic look in his eyes as he looked down at me, bringing back his massive claw at my eye level and preparing to strike.

And then those eyes burst into red and pink that spattered around me, after a loud crack! and the sound of shattering glass above. The man disappeared, leaving his innards. I saw Marina and Kevin, with the latter holding some kind of gun still in my direction. I stepped forward and looked at the mirror behind me- there was a hole not too high above my head, lucky the guy was that much taller than me- and found myself covered in blood and tinted red. A flash of angry, terribly angry crimson burst into my mind. I took off my glasses, and everything was back to normal, if not a tad bit blurrier. There was blood spattered on the lenses.

I opened my mouth to say something when all the blood faded away.

"Wha- What the hell?" I gasped, turning back to them and putting my glasses on. "Am I- Am I covered in blood-stuff?"

They shook their heads, Marina looking dumbfounded, and Kevin looking only mildly shocked- /as though he had seen this all before/.

"What the hell is this? How'd that guy get here?!" She turned to Kevin. "I thought you shot him already, when I tripped in the Mens' Department and he was walking up and- What the hell!?"

"What, are you telling me there're two of him?!" I demanded, exasperated. "That's so not cool! You helped him clone himself?"

"Why's everything gotta be my fault?" He replied, lowering his weapon. "And after I saved you, too."

"Oh- Uh- Yea- Thanks," I said, diverted, but only momentarily. "Aren't you not supposed to shoot your boss?"

"Your /boss/!?" Marina cried, looking fit to burst. "Oh my /God/!"

"Ah, shut up. This is stupid." He frowned, and there was a moment of silence in which I picture him scratching his head with his gun- Which would be so stupid, but utterly hilarious.

A scream pierced the air, and it was so different from the inhuman cries from out there. This scream was a familiar voice, and this voice was crying out a word, which was a name, which was

"ANDREW!"

We started running.